lake was much lower. In addition, the fishing pressure at the dam was far less, and the water was clearest, which he felt would help his bite.
Rose finished day two with a 17- pound, 3-ounce limit to vault him into fifth place. taking it home
From that point, Rose’ s tournament strategy was to fish“ way out” down at the dam first thing in the morning when the big fish seemed to be chasing bait over deep water. Then he fished docks to finish his limit.
“ Fishing for bass suspended on bait like that is a gamble,” Rose adds.“ They are roamers, following the bait wherever it goes. It seemed like they were feeding on shad schools first thing in the morning, and to catch one was a total bonus. So I took a chance during the first hour of my day, winging a big swimbait out over those deep breaks where I had seen arches. If I could get one or two big bites on the swimbait early, it would be well worth it. Then I’ d worry about finishing a limit on docks later in the day.”
On the morning of day three he caught a 6-pounder right off the bat. On day four the swimbait again produced two early 4-pound-plus fish. Those bonus bites paved the way to his victory. He finished limits of 15-13 and 14-9, respectively, by flipping docks. His winning total of 59-2 was just enough to claim his second win in a row, writing Rose’ s name in the FLW Tour history book.
Posing with giant checks became something of a family habit for Mark Rose, his wife, Christi, and daughters, Natalie( left) and Hannah Grace, this spring.
thrift second … again two bass tournaments held on two lakes 900 miles apart with 165 participants and somehow Mark rose and bryan thrift finish first and second two times in a row, separated by less than a pound each time. what are the chances? perhaps it’ s just further proof that the cream really does rise to the top in professional fishing tournaments. the first two Flw tour events of 2017 have been the rose and thrift show … or the thrift and rose show … and then back to the rose and thrift show, depending on what time of day you tuned into the FLW Live coverage. these Flw tour stars have traded some serious blows with big bass, battling down to the final seconds in each tournament to determine the winner and thrilling viewers with some fantastic action. though rose has prevailed both times, thrift has turned in some stunning catches at both events to keep fans holding their breath. at guntersville, thrift checked in a 22-pound catch on the final day to pull within 15 ounces of rose. at travis, thrift picked up right where he left off, catching 24-12 on the first day and shocking most of his peers and weigh-in fans who didn’ t believe such a catch was possible. thrift caught four of his bass in that big day-one catch on a shaky head with a damiki Finesse Miki 6.5 worm. later in the day, he caught a 6 1 / 2-pound brute by skipping docks with a 1 / 2- ounce jig and chunk. thrift grinded his way through keepers the following days with a variety of lures and added two more 5-pound dock bass to his four-day total of 58-6.
photo by andy hagedon larson lobs hardhead for co-angler win
By Chad Love david larson of Mound, Minn., only weighed in six fish during the first two days of the tour event at lake travis, but those six fish were more than enough to beat out the rest of the field and take home a $ 20,000 check as winning co-angler. larson had a two-day total of 21-10, or 15 ounces ahead of thomas Martens of Jonestown, texas, who boated 10 keepers for 20-11. larson says he was specifically targeting bigger fish during the tournament. he fished rock piles and hard bottom in 16 to 20 feet of water with ontario pro chris Johnston on day one and caught four keepers for 16-11. on day two, fishing with texan christopher brasher, he was up against the bank most of the day.
“ I was switching back and forth from a 1 / 2-ounce to a 3 / 4-ounce gene larew biffle hardhead paired up with a 4.8-inch keitech sexy Impact in ayu color,” says larson.“ I did make one adjustment on the last day and switched to a small bandit crankbait, which gave me that last keeper.” larson’ s two fish the last day weighed a combined 4-15.
74 flWfIshIng. com I aprIl 2017